Recognizing the Merchant's Metaphor for the Believer (in Arabic: مومن) in Terms of Historical-Cultural Anthropology Based on Surah "Al-Asr

Time and chronology are among the key concepts of the revelation culture. Surah Al Asr (in Arabic: العصر) is one of the Meccan surahs that describes the plan for human happiness and well-being in the shortest possible way and it is started with an oath to time (in Arabic: عصر). In response to the oath, this surah has spoken about the loss (in Arabic: خسر) of all human beings, except for those who are mentioned in the following verses. Talking about a loss in this Surah originated from the semantic domain of the business field. For this reason, it is important to recognize the relationship between business, time, and capital loss regarding the culture and context of revelation. Therefore, the current research by collecting library documents, descriptive-analytical method, and regarding the historical-cultural anthropology at the level of content analysis, seeks to answer the following questions: what is the background and knowledge that form the sense of the merchant's metaphor for the believer according to the historical-cultural anthropology of Mecca? According to historical-cultural anthropology, how has the relationship between a believer and a merchant contributed to the construction of this metaphor? The findings of the present research have indicated that by considering historical-cultural anthropology, a deeper understanding of the concepts of Surah Al-Asr can be obtained. According to the culture of that time, Allah likened the believer to a merchant and considered the believer's life as his commodity. The sense of this analogy is the wisdom and discourse of the business culture of that time. Even the root of the verb "شری" means unequal buying and selling and its application to the concept of martyrdom in the Holy Qur'an expresses a cultural discourse. The advice to "wait" (in Arabic: صبر) corresponds to the timing of summer and winter business trips. Moreover, the advice to "right" (in Arabic: (حق corresponds to the topography of Yemen and Sham. And all of them are one side of the simile for the merchant's metaphor for the believer.